V/H/S/85 Directed by David Bruckner, Scott Derrickson, Gigi Saul Guerrero, Natasha Kermani, and Mike P. Nelson.
V/H/S/85
Not rated, 110 min.
Now streaming on Shudder.
For horror movie lovers, the V/H/S anthology film series is a fun celebration of the genre. The producers wrangle together talented filmmakers who know a thing or two about what goes bump in the night and gives us nightmares – and they assemble a dream team here, with V/H/S/85, to deliver the best entry in the series yet.
This time, everything is set in 1985 and runs all over the era’s terror spectrum. You have the summer camp/hangout vibe, the technology boom, the Terminator-esque police shootout, and the overall weirdness and daring of ‘80s media.
Each of these filmmakers (David Bruckner, Scott Derrickson, Gigi Saul Guerrero, Natasha Kermani and Mike P. Nelson) has a wholly unique vision that gets you comfortable with the mundanity of its scene before pulling the rug from under you, throwing all kinds of bodily fluids on the screen to resurface your lunch and tighten your poop shoot.
Following your pressing of the play button, the film launches into Bruckner’s mainframe of the entire feature. It’s titled “Total Copy,” a documentary-style narrative that centers on a team of scientists studying a shapeshifting being named “Rory.” You get bite-sized updates during the film’s prologue, interludes and epilogue. It’s spectacularly gonzo, leading up to a finale that’s both funny and inventive. The amount of attention likely spent replicating this scientific recording is reflected on screen. It’s like watching a video from grade school, but rather than being bored by it, you’re trying to figure out this creature and predict what it’s going to do. What is its obsession with exercise videos? Are the scientists going to crack the case and break the communication barrier like Amy Adams in Arrival? Oh, just you wait. [Cue the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme track.]
On deck is Nelson’s “No Wake.” It perfectly resembles home videos of the time. You know, when friends and family are doing silly things in front of the camera. Here, seven friends (including Alex Galick, Anna Sunberg and Toussaint Morrison) travel to an RV camp at a lake. They make the classic rookie mistake of ignoring the signs (“Hey, don’t go in the water!”) to have a good time. Soon, their boating and water skiing fun takes a (uh) wrong turn, to put it lightly. It’s so jarring, raw and cold. But where it goes, especially in its follow-up segment a few short films later (“Ambrosia,” also directed by Nelson), is deliciously satisfying and worthy of its own feature-length exploration. It’s so layered for its limited run time, but it has the mind running with many possibilities and fun questions. Cross your fingers that one day a full-length movie arrives.
Then, there’s Guerrero’s equally cold “God of Death.” This one is also layered — working in a morning news show turned deadly, a natural disaster, and a dark and sinister ancient Aztec god. Doesn’t that sound wicked? It is, and Guerrero (Satanic Hispanics and Bingo Hell) doesn’t hold back. We crawl through tight spaces and see figures that make you want to sink into the floor. We even have time for a suspense break involving a fart. It’s quite good and holds momentum as we jump into the next “evil god” segment.
Enter Kermani (Lucky and Imitation Girl) with “TKNOGD.” Do you remember that performance artist sequence in She’s All That when Freddie Prinze Jr. plays Hacky Sack on a stage with eccentric music? Yeah, this is a little like that, but filtered through the weirdest parts of Lawnmower Man. It involves an artist (Chivonne Michelle) demonstrating a virtual reality software that allows her to exist on another plane. Once we start exploring the electronic landscape, an unexpected visitor of the unfriendly kind gives viewers, let’s say, a “real show.” Kermani’s film has some intelligent commentary about suffering for your art and the scariness of being in the audience and not knowing what’s truly part of the act. Think of the conclusion of Birdman or Black Swan – or even Hell Fest, when attendees at a haunted house theme park assume what they see is all a part of the experience. Performance art can be strange and exciting, and Kermani taps into it with scary-good results.
And lastly, we arrive at Derrickson’s “Dreamkill.” Starring James Ransome and Freddy Rodríguez, this is a chilling segment involving a murderous home invasion and a police-station bloodbath. It puts you inside a killer’s POV (prepare to get queasy over an eye-slicing, Lucio Fulci style) before going Model 101/Hardcore Henry on some cops. Derrickson (Sinister and Doctor Strange) manages to get underneath the skin while reaching memorable thrills. Some of the things he pulls out of his visual trick bag are to die for.
In all, V/H/S/85 is a horror mixtape of frightful delights that shows off all the strengths of its storytellers. It’s a collection of remarkably even-in-quality spook shows that make for a solid annual Halloween-time watch. Find it on Shudder today!
Grade: B
